Daniele Saracino, good to have you back in our programme! You are lecturer in European Studies at the University of Essex, working on migration, asylum and solidarity. 

We can say that these three topics have given rise to much contention for almost a decade now. 

During the migratory movements to Europe in 2015/2016, the dysfunctionality of the so-called Dublin regulation and by extension the whole European asylum system was under display. The political crisis was exacerbated when some Member States, like Poland and Hungary, refused to implement a temporary relocation scheme that aimed at sharing the responsibility for refugees more equally, even after the European Court of Justice had confirmed the duty to apply this measure. These countries then escalated the crisis by continuing to break EU law.